School Board Gets Proposal For Use Of866 Parking Spaces By Art Center

By Deserae del Campo
The Miami-Dade County School Board holds the key to the first formal agreement to provide adequate parking for the Miami Performing Arts Center before its formal Oct. 5 opening.

"The proposal to the school board is for the use of 866 spaces," said Jarret Haynes, arts center chief operating officer, "which indicates the total number of spaces the school board could guarantee to us on any given night. Additional spaces in the lot are being held by the school board for their use."

"We’re confident that the parking plan will address the Performing Arts Center’s needs for at least the next two to three years while they explore longer-term solutions," he said last week.

Other sites sought for patron parking are a surface lot next to the center’s Ziff Ballet and Opera House and valet lots to the south and west.

Center officials asked the parking authority to help secure parking. The parties signed a memorandum of understanding in March.

If the school board approves the proposal this week, an operations agreement will detail the full parking plan, including terms of the working relationship between the center and the parking authority, lot owners, location of facilities managed by the authority, spaces available at each and parking rates, said Suzette Espinosa, center publicist.

"The operating agreement with the Miami Parking Authority will be finalized once the school board approval is secured," said Mr. Haynes. "There is no need to wait for approval on all of the potential lots."

"The operating agreement will contemplate the potential for additional lots to be managed by parking authority," Mr. Haynes said. "We are, and have been, working diligently to secure adequate parking for our patrons and ticket buyers, and are confident that we are close to achieving that goal now."

The two-building arts center, a decade in the making, is near completion. Parking was never included in center construction plans. The parking authority is working to provide parking only until the center’s operators can find a permanent parking solution.

The parking authority manages more than 22,000 parking spaces in Miami in five garages, 56 lots and 7,631 metered street spaces.